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The son of William Blessed, a socialist coal-miner at Hickleton Main (and himself the son of a coal miner),[3] and Hilda Wall, Blessed was born at Montagu Hospital[4] in Mexborough, Yorkshire.[5] His great-great-grandfather Jabez Blessed, the father of 13 children, found work as a china and glass dealer in Brigg, Lincolnshire, where many of his family later hailed from.[6]

Other roles have emphasised Blessed's comedic abilities: in particular, Prince Vultan in the film Flash Gordon (1980) – for which he is frequently remembered for the exclamations "Gordon's alive!" and "DIVE!"; the mad, comic figure of Richard IV in the first series of The Black Adder (1983), a role Blessed has claimed to be one of his most cherished; and Spiro in the BBC adaptation of My Family and Other Animals (1987).[8] Blessed has joked that he was due to appear in Blackadder II (1986) as Elizabeth I, but was unavailable for filming.[9]

Since October 2008, Blessed has presented the English-language dub of the Japanese TV game show Unbeatable Banzuke on Challenge, under the pseudonym "Banzuke Brian". He was the narrator of the Sky 1 series Crash Test Dummies, starring Steve Marsh and Dan Wright. In animation, he has provided the voices of Bob in Kika & Bob (2008)[11] and Grampy Rabbit in Peppa Pig (2004–present).

Following a successful Facebook campaign, satellite navigation manufacturer TomTom recorded Blessed's voice for use in its products; he has been available as a voice command option since October 2010.[12][13] In September 2010, Blessed recorded the voice of Great Sultan Shahryār for Sheherazade, or The Princess, the Pirate and the Baboon!, an album of children's stories set to Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's classical music composition Scheherazade, co-starring Rory Bremner and released as an instalment of Grandma Dingley's Ingeniously Musical Tales in 2011.[14]

Downloadable content for the computer game War of the Roses (released in 2012) will feature narration by Blessed.[24] In June 2013, Blessed received the "Spirit of Hammer Award" at the Metal Hammer magazine Golden Gods.[25] Since September 2013, Blessed has been the resident bingo caller at Bingo Godz.[26] Blessed also recorded a commentary for Arriva's Medway Towns open top bus tour in 2013.[27] On 14 August 2014, Blessed featured in an episode of the BBC genealogy documentary series Who Do You Think You Are?, tracing his ancestors.[6]

Blessed lives in Windlesham, Surrey. He married Hildegarde Neil in 1978 and his daughter from that marriage, Rosalind, is an actress.[28] Blessed has worked alongside Rosalind on Doctors. He owns several dogs and is a patron of the Hopefield Animal Sanctuary.[29]

On 19 January 2015, Blessed collapsed on stage during a performance of King Lear with the Guildford Shakespeare Company, in which his daughter Rosalind was also acting. He received medical attention from a doctor in the audience and returned, 20 minutes later, to the stage to complete the play. The production's director, Caroline Devan, said: "Brian was an inspirational wonder. He had a small heart operation three years ago. We are not entirely sure why he became so dizzy but he is a 20-year-old in a 78-year-old's body. There was no stopping him."[30] On 30 January 2015, it was announced that Blessed had "been compelled to withdraw" from the production on the advice of his heart specialist.[31]